“Any time. I hope there was enough for everyone.”
“Wait. You two already know each other?” Chloe asks.
Deacon wraps his arm around her shoulders in a brotherly fashion—although the way he looks at her is anything but brotherly. “Yup.”
“Same,” Rose says. “If you’ll excuse me, I just remembered something I need to take care of.”
Rose slips away, and Chloe looks at me. “I’m guessing you’ve already met my father too?”
I nod. “The other night.”
“And…what did you think?”
Deacon tightens his arm around Chloe’s shoulders. I’m guessing if she didn’t want me talking about it in front of him, she wouldn’t have asked.
“That’s a difficult question, because I know about his past. It’s hard to look beyond that.”
“Try,” she says.
“Okay. He was nice—normal and funny.”
Chloe looks up at Deacon.
“Maybe Lincoln is right,” he says. “Maybe you should try talking to him.”
“I don’t know if I’m ready.”
I notice that with Deacon’s arm around her, Chloe looks a little more vulnerable than when she talks to Lincoln about her dad. Deacon studies Chloe and then looks at me.
“Would you give us a second?” he asks.
“Sure. I’ll just be over there.”
Lincoln said this party was going to be small, but there are tons of people here. I weave through everyone and search for Lincoln, but come up empty, so I go to the food table instead. Chris is getting a sandwich when I walk up.
“Great minds think alike,” I say, reaching around him to take a sandwich for myself.
He looks at me and smiles as he drops some potato chips on his plate. “Would you like to join me?”
“I’d love to.”
We find a small empty table off to the side, and I set my stuff down. “Would you like something to drink?”
“A beer would be great.”
My eyes widen, and he laughs.
“I’m kidding. Calm down; that was a joke. I’ll take a diet soda.”
“Not funny,” I say, giving him a pointed look. I return a minute later with two diet sodas and sit down next to him.
“She’s in love with him,” he says, nodding toward Chloe and Deacon.
“I was wondering about that.”
“I don’t remember much about the past… I guess that’s what happens when you’re drunk ninety-nine percent of the time. But I remember the way she used to look at him. Any time he’d stop by to see Linc, or if we’d run into him somewhere, she’d get stars in her eyes. That look stuck with me, because it was the same look her mother used to get when I’d walk into a room.”
Chris stops talking so he can take a bite.